Food Friday #4

This week was a pretty lame attempt at cooking and eating paleo.  I went out too much and ate not paleo and just didn't get the prep done that I wanted to.  I was also trying to use up more of what I have in my pantry/freezer, including chicken and salmon.

Here's what I did make:

1. Mustard Balsamic Baked Chicken


The chicken is this recipe here.  I really liked it, and the other bonus is that everything I needed to make it I already had.  This one will definitely happen again.  I ate the chicken with some frozen green beans and the sweet potato hash browns I had made a while ago and frozen.

2. Tourtiere

Yup.  I know. Not paleo at all.  But it was in my freezer, and 100% home made (by me!) and it needed to be eaten.

This recipe my dad had put together in 1999 trying to replicate the meat pie his mom used to make and so it's a combination of other recipes and trial and error.  And as you can see, it's very precise! HA!

1 lb     ground beef
1 lb     ground pork
1 med chopped onion
dash   sage
dash   savory
dash   ground cloves
dash  garlic salt
fresh ground pepper
salt
1 med  potato mashed (1/2c)

*pie crust

Makes two 8" pies.

Brown the meats, and add onion and spices. *don't worry about draining the meat* Simmer mixture for about 30 minutes.

Add your mashed potato to the meat mixture, and adjust salt and pepper to taste before cooling the mixture.

Let mixture cool.

*Using pre-made pie crusts OR (what I did) make your own (I used the classic crisco pie crust found here) assemble your pies, making sure to vent the top crust.

Bake pies in 425*F oven for 15 minutes.  Reduce heat to 350*F and bake for another 30 minutes.  There are varying opinions on what you should serve with your tourtiere.  Some people like ketchup, some people like chutney, and some people like it as is.  Your choice!

Unbaked pies do keep well in the freezer for at least a month!

3. Sad disaster or as it might also be known as, Ropa Vieja....

This is the only photo I have of this one...sorry it's not prettier!

So I went to make this recipe for Ropa Vieja from Paleomg.com.  I'm sure it would have turned out wonderfully.  Except for one thing I messed up.

Well, I had the best intentions of making this.  So I took my frozen meat out of my freezer to defrost in the fridge. Unfortunately I didn't get to it as soon as I would have liked.  I was dumb and even though I was worried the meat might be iffy, I figured it was my imagination and that I'm sure it would be fine (it looked okay and smelled okay, but the grocery store I bought it from is not my preference for meat and dairy...I've purchased far too much spoiled dairy from there in the past to really trust their meat).  Once it was done I couldn't bring myself to eat it.  I couldn't help but think it might make me sick.  And I don't know about anyone else, but if I get that in my head, it's too late and the meal will forever taste off.  So....I threw it all out.  Without eating a bite.  Sad, I know.  *sigh* Lesson learned I guess.

Food Friday #3

This is the third post of Food Friday, where I share what I ate this week with you, and how you could eat it too.  I started eating by paleo guidelines a while back, focusing on whole, real foods, and cooking from scratch.  A lot of time people wonder what it is you eat when you cut out grains and a lot of carbs.  Well here is what I eat, I hope it inspires you to do some cooking of your own!


1. Roasted Squash Seeds
These are really just a "by-product" from #2 but I love eating roasted squash seeds.  These ones are from a spaghetti squash.  Separate the seeds from the flesh & goop, don't wash, add a little oil and whatever you like.  I used chill and garlic powder with some fresh ground pepper and salt.  Roast in a single layer in your oven at 350F until they're crispy and brown.

2. Pizza Spaghetti Squash Casserole
Apparently I didn't take any pictures making this, but I did make my very own pizza sauce for this.  In fact, the slow cooker recipe I used makes about 4 cups, so now I have 3 cups of pizza sauce ready to go in my freezer.  Best part is I know what's in it, and it's a lot less junk than the bought stuff.  It's super easy and delicious, here's the recipe I used.

For the actual casserole I used the recipe from paleomg found here.  I totally forgot that it had the sausage in it, so I had already thawed one chicken breast, so of course that went in too.  This turned out really great and I would make it again, maybe adding mushrooms and pepperoni.  Oh, and if you have the choice, buy the "sausage meat" that's like ground beef, otherwise you're just going to have to take it out of the casing, as you cook it like ground beef.

Super tasty, I would make it again, probably a mushroom and pepperoni version!

3. Spicy Crusted Salmon with Winter Slaw
I like this recipe for salmon because it's a little unexpected.  I like the uniqueness of putting spicy with salmon.  Here's the recipe I used.  I also used chill powder instead of cayenne.  Because I'm cooking just for me, my mixture makes more of a "crust" for the salmon instead of the way it looks on the recipe picture.  I like it like this, feel free to use less.

Winter Slaw
This one is again from Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry
Salad
 - purple cabbage
 - romaine lettuce
 - carrots (recipe says julienned, but next time I would use a carrot peeler for shreds because my julienning skills could use work)

Mix the veggies in the combination that makes you happy.

Tahini dressing (altered from the recipe)
 - 1/4 cup Tahini
 - 1/4 cup water
 - 3 Tbsp lemon juice
 - 1 Tbsp olive oil
 - 1/2 tsp sea salt

Mix all ingredients together with a blender or immersion blender and toss desired amount on salad!

 

The salad was good, but I liked it with more lemon  juice and would squeeze an extra wedge of lemon on before eating.

4. Crab Cakes
This recipe was based on this one here. I only had one can of crab meat (which definitely does not equal anywhere near a pound of crab) and so I modified and just used this recipe as a guideline.

They turned out alright, I would actually look for a different recipe, or try harder to use the right proportions next time.  I think I did end up for the most part eating these with avocado and lime, and more of the Tahini salad. 

Food Friday!

Since living by myself, I find the easiest way to eat healthy (and paleo) is by having one big cooking day and eating that all week.  I've decided that I'm going to post the summary of that here once a week on Fridays (even though I usually do my cooking on Sundays).



1. Breakfast Sausage Patties
One of my favourite new things is having home made breakfast sausage all week long.  Yup.  Weekday big breakfasts.  I make up a batch of sausage patties and freeze them.  For the longest time I used to use this recipe from Paleomg.com.  Don't get me wrong, it's good, but the new one I tried this week blew that one out of the water! It came from Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry - Elana Amsterdam, the new paleo cookbook my sister got me for Christmas!

I modified it a bit because I like the texture best when using ground pork and ground turkey (pork alone is a bit greasy, and turkey is too lean and the texture weirds me out!) Below is my modification on the recipe.

1 lb          ground turkey
1 lb          ground pork
1 Tbsp     dried sage
1 Tbsp     dried rosemary (crushed up a bit more)
1 Tbsp     honey
1 tsp        sea salt
1 tsp        fresh ground black pepper
1 Tbsp    fat of choice for cooking (I used coconut oil)

Mix all ingredients (except oil) in large bowl - I use my hands...it just works better.  Shape into patties, about 1/4 cup or so each

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat.  Cook patties in skillet, turning once & gently pressing down to flatten.  They're done when meat is cooked thoroughly (use a meat thermometer if that's your style!) and when the patties are golden brown.  Place on paper towel after transferring from the skillet to absorb extra grease.  Serve immediately OR let cool & freeze in airtight container.


2.  Chia Meatballs & Sauce

I found this meatball recipe by fluke and really wanted to try it because it used chia seeds.  The chia seeds get gel-ish when wet, which is what is used to help hold the meatballs together, thus replacing egg as the binder in the this recipe.

Both the meatball and sauce recipe are from Bare Root.  I made the recipe as-is, and divided it into 4 containers with about 3-4 meatballs in each and popped them into the freezer (when cool).


3. Paleo "Potato" Leek Soup

This is another one from  Paleo Cooking from Elana's Pantry - Elana Amsterdam.  It's super-veggie loaded and surprisingly tasty.  I'm not 100% on the "replace everything with cauliflower" bandwagon, but this one gets my vote!  Next time I would use a larger head of cauliflower for a thicker soup, but it's still good and I would make it again!

2 Tbsp           coconut oil
1 medium      leek (green & white parts) about 3 cups
1 large           head of cauliflower
6 c                 stock (chicken or veggie would probably work best)
1/2 tsp           sea salt
1/2 tsp           ground black pepper

Melt coconut oil in large sauce pan over medium heat.  Sauté the leek about 10-15 minutes until soft and lightly browned.  Add the cauliflower and continue to sauté your veggies another 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is tender.  Add the stock and bring the mixture to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Using a hand blender, puree soup until smooth.  (If using a conventional blender, let soup cool for a bit and blend in small batches.  If you don't, you will explode hot soup all over your kitchen and your self. Please don't do this. It hurts and is messy!)

Stir in salt and pepper and make sure soup is heated through.  Serve and enjoy!



4. Sweet Potato Hash browns

These ended up being too much work, and I wouldn't do it again.  I looked up how to make shredded potato hash browns and then combined a bunch of recipes and tips together.

I shredded the raw (peeled) sweet potatoes.  Then par-boiled them for a couple minutes.  After that they needed to dry.  While I figured I'd have soggy potatoes sitting around all day I threw them on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven on broil.  After they were mostly dry, I put them in freezer bags.  When re-cooking I put them in a skillet to brown.  I'm going to have to experiment with more/different fat next time I cook up a bag because they were meh.  Too mushy, and the whole process was just too much work!


5. Homemade Grapefruit Jello

This is definitely not the most appetizing looking photo, but I have really been into making my own "jello".  It's a good alternative to the store bought stuff and gelatin is actually really good for you.

1 Tbsp     unflavoured gelatin (grass-fed, ideally)
1/4 cup    cold water
2 cups     grapefruit juice (or other fruit juice of choice - just watch sugar content!)

Sprinkle gelatin over the surface of your cold water and without stirring let soak for about 3 minutes until it has absorbed most of the moisture.  Have your juice ready at almost boiling.  Combine your hot juice with the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.  Place mixture in the fridge to set.

There are a million variations to this, and this is just what I did this one time.  It was tasty, and I really enjoyed it as a snack.  You could always dilute your juice with water, or add a sweetener if you find the grapefruit juice too tart.


6. Brazilian Curry Chicken in the Crockpot

I got a crockpot/slow cooker/"wife" whatever you like to call it for Christmas from my mom.  Yay!  You'll be seeing crockpot creations likely on a weekly basis around here!

This recipe is straight-up Paleomg.com.  I accidentally added too much broth and the whole can of coconut milk, so it was a bit soupy (which was okay too).   She used one red and one yellow pepper, I used one red and one green...because I'm a rebel like that!

Well there you have it!  That is what I'll be eating this week!  How do you like to do your cooking? Do you prepare it all at once, or do you cook every night?  Are you planning to give any of these recipes a try? I'd love to hear from you in the comments!